#goswans

In my last blog I went into detail about how Facebook is used as a social media platform to promote the Sydney Swans Football Club. It is without a doubt the most used social media platform and has the most amount of reach with its fans and has allowed the club to connect with them in the most effective way to promote their brand. Over the last few years other social media platforms have been created and although different in nature are also very effective in helping promote the Sydney Swans Football Club. One of these new social media platforms is Twitter. Twitter’s mission is “to give everyone the power to create and share ideas and information, instantly, without barriers”. There are around “500 million tweets per day, with 300 million active users, over 35 languages and 80% of Twitter users login via their mobile devices” (https://about.twitter.com). Now even though these are not quite the same numbers as Facebook, Twitter is different in the way it allows the club to interact with their fans and help promote the club. A tweet is a message posted on Twitter, consisting of 140 characters or less. It can contain text, photos, links and videos. However, it is “important to note that whatever you include any of these things they will be counted as a link and automatically take up 22 characters”. On Twitter anyone can reply to a tweet. This is what makes Twitter different to a certain extent to Facebook. Twitter is much more personable, and individual players will tweet their own thoughts and opinions and fans as well as the general public have the opportunity to reply. This enables fans to connect and even have conversations with their favourite players. Also, very similar to the Facebook page, the Sydney Swans post comments and photos that link to the Swans website with full articles of news and results that may have occurred. On top of this, on Twitter people can Retweet – “this is where you choose a tweet from someone else and Tweet it to your own followers”. Other things that can be done on Twitter include adding favourites, which demonstrates an acknowledgement or appreciation of a page – this is very good for the Swans page as demonstrates the amount of followers and interest in what has been tweeted. Hashtags and mentions are also used that organise tweets easier, again a great tool for the Swans (#goswans) to promote the club so fans know where they are going and what they can see. The best types of tweets for the Swans to use to build follower loyalty and help grow memberships are through promotions. A good promotion that the club has done through Twitter is the discounting of tickets. An example of this was family day where families could bring their kids and kids would get in for free. This just demonstrated a very family friendly environment which is very attractive for an AFL club, as well as getting more people down to enjoy the football which will in turn increase membership numbers. The Swans also Tweet behind the scenes- these include photos at training and in the change rooms, which just adds an extra dimension to the player experience and gets fans closer to see what its like and what the players and coaches go through.